Tom Richmond: A new '˜third way' party could speak for so many

Talking through the state of the parties, public disquiet is festering. The Tories? Can’t be trusted after breaking their manifesto promise on tax in the Budget. Labour? Unelectable – the Shadow Cabinet couldn’t even run a parish council.

Ukip? They no longer have a raison d’être, while their leader, Paul Nuttall, allowed the Hillsborough tragedy, and other aspects of his life, to be embellished on his website. The Scottish Nationalists? You must be joking. The Greens, English Democrats and other fringe parties? They will never speak for Britain.

This leaves the Liberal Democrats who are meeting in York this weekend for their spring conference. The one nationwide party that is unashamedly pro-EU, they like to think they’re on the comeback trail after being squeezed out at the last election.

The traditional ‘protest’ party that has attracted those disaffected by Tory and Labour governments alike, they, too, remain hamstrung by the single most important word in politics – trust.

When leader Tim Farron tried to exploit Tory double standards on the tax status of the self-employed, three words returned to haunt him – student tuition fees – and he wasn’t even party to his predecessor Nick Clegg’s volte-face.

He’s also compromised by, arguably, the most damaging word in politics – hypocrisy. The party that has long campaigned for a fully-elected House of Lords is unashamedly deploying its 100-plus army of unelected peers, a number totally out of proportion with its nine MPs, to hold up Brexit’s implementation.

Lib Dem Brexit blocking tactics in the Lords on Monday night were exposed by Labour’s Baroness Hayter who said: “I will take no lessons from the Liberal Democrats, who confessed to me outside the Chamber that this appeals to their core vote and they are piling on members because of it.”

So where does that leave those perturbed by the worst excesses of the Tories’ draconianism and Labour’s socialism? Just as there was a need for a new party – the SDP – to be formed in 1981 by the ‘gang of four’ Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, there’s an opportunity for a group of similarly principled politicians to do likewise and provide a compassionate and credible ‘third way’ which challenges the status quo.

For, unless Britain’s more consensual MPs take the lead, the country will become more divided and polarised. Those in despair just need the courage of their convictions – they might just be surprised by the level of public backing.

I DON’T envy Theresa May on Brexit – or over winning any referendum of Scottish independence.

Part of me wants the Government to withhold the additional £350m made available in the Budget for Scotland. I’d also like the outdated Barnett Formula scrapped and a more equitable distribution of Whitehall funds across the United Kingdom based on real population trends rather than an outdated mechanism to neuter the independence threat of the 1970s. Why, for example, should English taxpayers subsidise free hospital parking, care charges and tuition fees north of the border when they, themselves, are denied these services on cost grounds?

Yet this approach will be portrayed as vindictiveness and play into the SNP’s anti-English agenda. Not so long ago, I recall David Cameron’s complacent aides suggesting that the then PM would be remembered for presiding over a resurgent economy, preserving the UK and keeping Britain in the EU. If only...

AFTER Scotland’s rugby team was thumped by England at Twickenham, parody quotes purportedly from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon were widely circulated suggesting she did not accept the result and that it should be changed.

How apt.

IT’S for the proprietors of the London Evening Standard to justify George Osborne’s appointment as editor. It is, however, for the former chancellor to explain how he can remain as MP for Tatton when this role is in addition to countless countless other money-making ventures and speeches in the private sector, and also his much-vaunted Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

It’s galling that he will still be paid as a full-time MP by the taxpayer when he will be nothing of the sort – especially when the potential exists for so conflicts of interest.

WHEN I ventured on January 14 that the Government must not have a monopoly on good ideas, it was prompted by a reader’s suggestion that street parking be banned within 300 metres of all schools to encourage pupils to walk while cutting pollution and creating a healthier society.

Fair play to Sadiq Khan, the rather admirable Mayor of London, who has made this a “priority issue” and is providing cash for 50 primary schools to relocate entrances away from busy roads.

At the same time, Leeds Council wants to ban new take-aways within a 400-metre radius of schools, though it remains to be seen whether this will lead to parents providing their children with healthier snacks in their packed lunch.

Perhaps both methods need to be road-tested (no pun intended) – both pollution and obesity increase the pressure on the NHS.

THE latest Rileyism from Radio 5 Live’s George Riley – “absolutely no way”. Words fail me.

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